\n<\/p>\n
A U.S. appeals court has cleared the way for a Louisiana law requiring poster-sized displays of the Ten Commandments in public classrooms to take effect.<\/p>\n
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 12-6 to lift a block that a lower court first placed on the law in 2024. In the opinion released Friday, the court said it was too early to make a judgment call on the constitutionality of the law.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s partly because it\u2019s not yet clear how prominently schools may display the religious text, if teachers will refer to the Ten Commandments during classes, or if other things like the Mayflower Compact or Declaration of Independence will also be displayed, the majority opinion said. <\/p>\n
Without those sorts of details, the panel decided it didn\u2019t have enough information to weigh any First Amendment issues that might arise from the law. In other words, there aren\u2019t enough facts available to \u201cpermit judicial judgment rather than speculation,\u201d the majority wrote in the opinion.<\/p>\n
But the six judges who voted against the decision wrote a series of dissents, some arguing that the case was ripe for judicial review and others saying that the law exposes children to government-endorsed religion in a place they are required to be, presenting a clear constitutional burden.<\/p>\n
Circuit Judge James L. Dennis wrote that the law “is precisely the kind of establishment the Framers anticipated and sought to prevent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ruling comes after the full court heard arguments in the cases in January 2026 following a ruling by a three-judge panel of the court that Louisiana\u2019s law was unconstitutional.<\/a> Arkansas also has a similar law<\/a> that has been challenged in federal court.<\/a><\/p>\n Texas law\u2019<\/a> took effect on Sept. 1, marking the largest attempt in the nation to hang the Ten Commandments in public schools. Multiple school districts were barred from posting them after federal judges issued injunctions in two cases against the law, but they have already gone up in many classrooms across the state as districts paid to have the posters printed themselves or accepted donations.<\/p>\n The laws are among the pushes by Republicans, including President Donald Trump, to incorporate religion into public school classrooms. Critics say it violates the separation of church and state while backers argue that the Ten Commandments are historical and part of the foundation of U.S. law.<\/p>\n The laws have been challenged by families representing a variety of religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism, and clergy, in addition to nonreligious families.<\/p>\n